Model For a Day | A La Mode Portrait Photography

If you want a solid idea of what a model for a day shoot is like make sure you hear what Shannon has to say about her experience.   You get to watch her from her nervous start all the way through her excited finish. 

Curvy Girl Challenge : Wellington Photographer

Curvy Girl Challenge: Dob in your favourite curvy girl for a makeover, photo-session, and print.

 (this is me by the way)

“I am too fat to be photographed...I will do it once I have lost x amount of weight” - I hear this comment more times that I can count.  I hear it weekly. Drives me up a tree.  Not because it means a delayed session...it is because of what it represents about our culture.  Here is what I am usually thinking but very rarely say...now I am going to say it.

 After lovingly mentally shaking the person who has said it..."Seriously? Do you really think you are less of a person because your bum is bigger than is was when you were 17? All that you are...all that you have achieved... it isn’t worth celebrating because you feel you have a slightly lumpy bum? If you have kids...do you think they will love you any more when you have a skinny bum? No but they sure as heck will be sad when they look back over the pictures of their childhood and you are nowhere to be seen. You are a very important part of your family’s life. Stand up and be counted and acknowledged for your awesomeness now. A scale has no ability to indicate value of a human. Sorry it is not part of the software despite what we are told. 

Fashion Models are all photoshopped in the magazines anyway. If you want me to photoshop wiggly bits ...no drama, I am literally a master at it. I even have a certificate to prove it. "

I get it though.  I hate looking at pictures that people take of me when I am not aware where my bum looks much bigger than I ever allow myself to acknowledge it is.  I get it.  I am a expansively wonderful girl myself.  But I have children and I don't want to always be hiding behind the camera.  I want them to have a record of their childhood that includes me...because I am quite a major player in there too. Not just dad and the other kids. 

Usually we look bad in photos because we have never been taught how to show off our good bits.  We teach you how to do that at our studio so that any time anyone whips out their camera you will know how to not get blindsided on facebook.

So here is my next challenge. Dob in your most deserving curvy girl. Someone who you think would benefit from a free makeover and a free photoshoot, and a free 7x10 inch print.  Give us some good reasons why we should pick your deserving person.  We will pick one person and shoot a behind the scenes video and then feature the best images on our blog. You can nominate a friend, a family member or yourself.   To feature your lovely person please fill in the form below:

Ethereal Shannon | Wellington Photographer

Photography Mandi Lynn

Make Up and Hair: Renee Tomuri

Post Production: Mandi Lynn

Shannon is one of those creatures that is blessed with not only beauty, intelligence, and talent, but she is also an absolute honey to work with.   She claims she was a gawky ugly duckling only a year ago with her braces and glasses.  It is very difficult to believe now.   Keep tuned we are working on a highlights video of Shannon's shoot with us where she lets you in on what it is like to have an A La Mode Model for a Day experience. 

Treena and Cassandra | Mother Daughter Photography

They are just the cutest mother and daughter.  The tatoos that they share are a doodle that the two of them doodle all of the time.   Such a cool relationship to observe and capture and they are both so darn beautiful inside and out!

Nummy Noelle | Wellington Fashion Photographer

Noelle was one of our model for a day winners that we met at the Wellington Wedding Show.  She is on her way to get married in Germany and wanted to get some lovely shots done for herself and her partner.  We had such a good time on this shoot and lucked out.  As I was taking her to my favourite black wall to shoot on there was this gorgeous mustang parked in front of it and the owner / friend of the owner / some dude on the street was standing by the car and let us use it for the shoot.  LOVE the result. 


When Noelle came to collect the images this week she was laid out with a cold and then wrote us this, " Thankyou again so much for the beautiful makeup, hair and photos! I love them! My cold is going away and I am pretty certain it is because my body figures it has to feel at least half as good as that woman in my photos looks."


Glad you are feeling better Noelle and I hope you have a wonderful trip to Germany.

Happy Mother's Day Janine

Janine and Sophie came for a mother daughter shoot the other day and we had such a good time.  As per our usual pattern we started with Sophie and went out and had a great time in the last day of sun before it all turned to custard. We posed on Graffiti walls, in gardens, and old bricks...I really love petone.  We decided that a trip to the beach was in order when Janine finished her shoot only to be met by completely gale force winds.  They almost got sand blast facials by the end of it.   I think we lasted about 7 minutes on the beach in the end and were afraid we were going to take off like kites but it was good fun and then we ran back to the car to warm up.  Janine I think is more of a kid at heart than Sophie and she got back to her roots riding my bike around the mean streets of Petone.  I so love doing mother and daughter shoots....but it makes me miss my mommy......

Model For a Day | The Gorgeous Kelley

Just a little teaser from today's shoot.  Kelley works for Kiwi bank and decided she wanted to get some beautiful portraits of herself just for herself.  She was so much fun.  We even got some beach time in between the rain clouds.  Lovely day with such a bubbly gorgeous lady.

Zuzu | Wellington Portrait Photographer

Meet Zuzana.  I met Zuzana about 2 years ago on my very first fashion shoot with Cathy Davy's.  Zuzu was working as a masseus in Cathy's Salon and was drafted into being a hair model for Cathy's portfolio that year.  I loved her eyes and her gentle way of being so after that shoot I asked if I could borrow her for another one.  A couple of years passed and recently I got a call from her asking her to help her celebrate a landmark birthday for her by capturing her at this stage in her life.  Together we planned the perfect photoshoot for Zuzu and then threw in a bit of randomness just for fun.  Zuzu wanted Bridget Bordeau meets  Kate Moss, meets a french cafe and a preRaphelite painting.   Here is a wee taste of what we came up with.